STRIKING IT RICH: In Rassie we should trust...and in Bafana too

THAT WAS A PROPER DINKUM BARBARIANS GAME

The diesel price made the trip prohibitively expensive, but Gqeberha last weekend was a great celebration of both South African rugby and rugby in general, with the Barbarians this time having the personnel to put on a proper Barbarians-type show for an appreciative crowd.

Of course, the weather helped too. The wet of Cape Town last year just wasn’t conducive to Barbarians-type rugby and Robbie Deans’ team were on a hiding to nothing from the outset. The team assembled by Scott Robertson had just enough to be competitive, if not for the entire game, at least for periods of it, and some of the tries scored would fit into a season’s highlights reel.

A perfect start to the Springbok season 🇿🇦✅#BARvRSA | #SSRugby pic.twitter.com/4GMON1TRe6 — SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 20, 2026

They were competitive enough, too, for the Springboks to learn something out of it, and their apparent vulnerability to the good Barbarians off-load game of the first half was something that would have precipitated some thought and subsequent hard work on their defence before the real business of the test season starts in Johannesburg next weekend.

Some have accused me of being a spoilsport for saying that you do need to have some perspective. The Boks and the South Africa A side were just playing a scratch Barbarians team and Zimbabwe after all. But it was a day that showcased the depth this country has available to it and there were enough positive indicators towards the challenges of the here and now, meaning the forthcoming Nations Championship games and beyond that the Greatest Rivalry Series, and the next World Cup cycle for South Africans to be highly optimistic that the Boks will enjoy sustained success.

THE BATH OF SA RUGBY

My overnight stop on the journey up to the Eastern Cape was in Groot Brak, just outside of Gqeberha, an area of the Garden Route where there are quite a few former players residing. The former Springbok No 8 Anton Leonard, who owns a restaurant there, was initially from the area and returned there after captaining the Bulls to success under the coaching of Heyneke Meyer, who is now back in the role he filled when I first met him - coach of the SWD Eagles.

There were quite a few trips made to George to watch SWD in my years working for The Argus, first in the era of the rather eccentric coach Pieter de Jager, who was followed by another eccentric (in his way) in Phil Pretorius, and then the less eccentric but incredibly passionate Meyer.

Pretorius got the Eagles onto a competitive footing in the Currie Cup, at a time when he had Leonard, Braam van Straaten and the two Stoltz brothers, Conrad and Thys, among others, playing for him, not to mention future Blitzbok star and later coach Paul Treu.

Future Bok coach Meyer, who doubled as a Stormers and Bok assistant coach in 1999, was very passionate about rugby in the region and, as mentioned in last week’s column, he had hopes of turning George into the Bath of South African rugby. It’s not fanciful either if you consider the good schools in the region, such as Outeniqua and Oakdale, outside Riversdale.

It ended up benefitting Ireland more than it did South Africa, but CJ Stander hailed from George and was schooled at Oakdale, while a player not unlike him in style and stature, Paul de Villiers, also followed exactly the same path and is now a Springbok. Manie Libbok was born in Humansdorp, a couple of hundred kilometres up the coast and nearer to Gqeberha, but was schooled at Outeniqua. So was Warrick Gelant, who was born in Knysna.

The Eagles had faded before Meyer’s return to his old stomping ground sparked a mini-revival, with his team only just missing out on qualification to the Currie Cup Premier Division, but back in the late 1990s, they looked set to vindicate his confidence.

They ended up being outplayed in the semifinal in Johannesburg by the eventual winners, the Lions, who were then coached by the former All Black coach Laurie Mains, but along the way they claimed some big scalps, among them Ian McIntosh’s Sharks team that were beaten by the Lions in the Durban final.

KAAIMANS PASS POSED A MORTAL CHALLENGE TO VISITING TEAMS

It wasn’t just the Eagles, who had Outenqua Park in George as their base, who posed a challenge to visiting teams. So did the treacherous 2,8 kilometres of winding stretch of road known as the Kaaimans Pass that separates George from Wilderness.

Back in the day, there were lots of big games in George, and there were also visits from overseas teams when they were on tour. I remember a game featuring Italy a year or two later, but my particular recollection is of the Ireland team that played in George on their 1998 tour. Coached by future British and Irish Lions and Wales coach Warren Gatland and managed by former Lions player Donal Lenihan, Ireland spent a whole week (it was the start of their tour) in the old Wilderness Beach Garden Court (it is still there under a different name).

And because in those days I worked for a newspaper that sent me everywhere, I spent that week in the same hotel. Much time was spent in the Irish-themed bar that is part of the hotel, but there was also a need to get out every now and then, and there was many an evening of revelry both for us rugby hacks and members of the Irish squad at, from memory, the Dros in George and a nightclub that may or may not have been attached.

Needless to say that 2.8km of road was particularly difficult at night, and in 1997 I was fortunate to have the future Springbok captain Corne Krige sitting next to me when driving that stretch. It was around 3am after a Western Province/Eagles Friday night game, and some of the WP players had asked me for a lift back to the hotel. From memory, the other players in the car were Hottie Louw and Louis Koen.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it was Corne who grabbed my arm as we went around a sharp bend and said: “Aren’t you driving on the wrong side of the road?” I was (insert startled emoji).

But back to that Irish stay. The weather was pretty inclement that week, as it has been this winter in the southern Cape, and there was a fair amount of cabin fever and the pub did sell a drink that I became better acquainted with there than I ever did in Ireland - Guinness. You might ask why we didn’t all just take a long walk along the beach, but if you ask, you haven’t seen how steep the stairs from the hotel to the beach are at that spot. Or maybe it was just the hangover that made it appear thus.

Anyway, there was some rugby on that trip, and it is a measure of how strong SWD were under the coaching of Meyer that Ireland had to dig deep before winning 27-20. A few days later, we’d all moved on to Cape Town and in an utterly forgettable game, Ireland somehow managed to eke out a 12-6 win over WP at Newlands. The most memorable thing about that game was a quote from the WP coach Alan Solomons afterwards - “Ireland took so many breaks in this game that they should be sponsored by Kit-Kat!”

Ireland went from there to a series that they lost 2-0, but which was marked by the four tries scored on his debut by one Stefan Terblanche in Bloemfontein (the first of them was hard to see because there was so much braai smoke). Terblanche, by the way, can also be counted as a product of SWD. Although he made his name playing for the Sharks, he was born in Mossel Bay and educated in Swellendam.

DRIVING MISS DAISY

I stopped in Groot Brak (actually it was halfway between Groot Brak and Klein Brak, where you’ll find Reebok and Tiergniet, which happens to be home to more than just one person of my ken) to pick up my colleague Brenden. Who may or may not have been really impressed with the fuel consumption of my Navara. I managed to keep it at 6.8 litres to 100 km all the way from Cape Town to PE, not bad for a 4 x 4, and back, but it was definitely at the cost of speed.

The focus on limiting consumption (it was 3.5K all told in the end for the trip to Gqeberha and back to Blouberg) meant we didn’t arrive at our destination in time for Siya Kolisi’s captain’s press conference, even though initially it felt like we were going to be there a long time in advance of the 2pm start. So much so that we thought we could spend some time over breakfast at The Lookout in Plettenberg Bay.

But we were in time to have a drink (though non-alcoholic for me for I am in one of those health kicks) at Barney’s Tavern, the venue for a scuffle between the late James Small and a Springbok wave-skier (is that really a thing?) that saw the first rock star of SA rugby suspended from the 1994 tour to the UK and Ireland, Kitch Christie’s first as coach.

There we met up with a lady who told us she had been desperate to get a ticket to the rugby for her father as a Father’s Day present, but was shocked to find that the cheapest she could get hold of was R1300. I was shocked to hear that too. This is PE we are talking about, not the most economically flush city on the planet, although definitely the friendliest.

I made the point to her that I wouldn’t spend 1.3K on a Barbarians game either, and there were clearly many in the city who agreed with her view, as Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium was at best half full. And we are talking about a rugby-starved community. It was apparently the Barbarians’ home game, so we won’t blame SA Rugby for it, but surely it’d make more sense to sell tickets for a more reasonable monetary outlay and then guarantee a bigger crowd.

I’d say you need a bigger crowd for the atmosphere, but actually there was a great atmosphere in the stadium anyway. PE is just like that when it comes to sporting events, as those who have experienced the Orange Army at St George’s Park in the Betway SA20 would apparently attest. When it comes to vibe, Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium beats most venues - even when only half full.

BOK SQUAD AND THE QUESTIONS PEOPLE ASK

So late at night, very, very late at night, after the game, my phone buzzed. It was an email from SA Rugby. A Bok squad had been announced. A 46-man squad called up for the Nations Championship games in July. I looked through it, noted with surprise but also pleasure the inclusion of two SA under-20 players, Riley Norton and Vusi Moyo, and then did what journalists do - I looked for the absences, the glaring absentees.

With points on offer and the new #NationsChampionship logs, Rassie Erasmus says the Springboks won't change the way they approach the games 🗣️#SSRugby pic.twitter.com/IufiP2Ulkh — SuperSport Rugby (@SSRugby) June 24, 2026

Given where the Bok strengths are, there were none. Evan Roos wasn’t ignored this time, and Rassie called up the form players - meaning Embrose Papier etc. But did that mean everyone was happy? Nope. Apparently, JJ van der Mescht, an overseas-based player, suddenly has currency. So there were questions, both in social media and then directly to Rassie himself at the Tuesday press conference, as to why Van der Mescht was not in the squad.

I have always felt that the locally based player should be backed ahead of the overseas-based player when the call is close. And for goodness sake, people, didn’t you see how well 20-year-old Norton played against the Barbarians? He is clearly a player with a bright future, and Rassie is not just picking for now, but he’s also got a succession planning mission running parallel to the immediate mission of beating England and, beyond that, the All Blacks.

Also, haven’t we now reached a point where in Rassie we should trust? He’s won enough, got enough calls right, many of them apparently crazy when he first makes it, to be given a bit of leeway. He is highly scientific in his approach and would not have omitted Van der Mescht without having reason, and those reasons would probably have been based on stats he’s assembled and analysed.

When he was at the Sharks, the product of Kearsney College was questioned for his output at training. He’s had time to mature now and doubtless his output has improved, but someone close to Rassie told me he may have doubts about the player’s ability to survive the Spartan Bok training regime. If that is true, it would be based on the data he has seen and assessed in terms of output. And Van der Mescht, who was part of an online alignment camp earlier in the year, would have been told what he needs to do.

Then there was a question about Juarno Augustus. Rassie had an easy answer to that one - the Ulster No 8 is not there because he’s injured. No debate. But there shouldn’t have been one even if he was fit, as aside from the Japan-based world-class Jasper Wiese, Erasmus has a clutch of really excellent home-based No 8s to draw on - Evan Roos was good as a substitute against the Barbarians, and there is also Cameron Hanekom. And then there is the fit again Elrigh Louw, who is not there currently.

As Erasmus pointed out, there are many test matches still to come this season. And he hinted that players outside the current squad could be drawn in after the England game for the two remaining home Nations Championship games, depending on who needs resting and who doesn’t.

Bottom line - there are enough good players in the squad, and there are only so many places that can be filled, so good players will miss out. If Lions captain Francke Horn was aligned to another country, he might also be in the mix. But he isn’t because this country has an embarrassment of riches in his position.

WELL DONE TO BAFANA

If you sense a bit of irritation in that previous entry, it didn’t compare to that which greeted some of the reaction to the Bafana Bafana defeat to Mexico in the opening game of the Fifa World Cup. The general disappointment after the 2-0 defeat was maybe understandable because of the number of people who allow blind patriotism to cloud common sense and thus buy into the myth that the team will win a game they shouldn’t.

In 1997, there were many Capetonians who were making plans for the 2004 Olympics that we believed would be held in the city. We believed it because that’s what the marketing jingoism told us. But when it came to the vote, it was Athens that won. And the big fireworks display scheduled for the Waterfront fell flat.

The South Africans were never going to win at the home of one of the host nations at a venue where Mexico haven’t lost since 19 voetsek. But after an insipid start to their second game at a neutral venue, they showed they have something going for them and should have won. Then against South Korea, they were again dominant, and missed many scoring chances, but eventually nailed it.

Yes, there are more teams in this World Cup than in prior World Cups, but given the expectation, getting out of the group is an achievement to celebrate, and I will be joining the millions who will be glued to the television when Bafana tackle Canada in Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Before being cynical about the Bafana achievement, consider this - they are through while Scotland have their fate still in the balance and are highly likely to miss out on a place in the knockouts.